FYI: Things You Should Know about the Smart City Project

Bhubaneswar and Rourkela made it to the coveted list of Smart City Project. Is this just a vanity tag? What does this actually mean for the two cities? Let’s find out:

The state capital and Rourkela have been included in the list of 98 smart cities released by the Union Urban Development.

While Uttar Pradesh has maximum of 13 cities, followed by 12 in Tamil Nadu and 10 in Maharashtra to be developed as smart cities, Madhya Pradesh has seven cities in the project.

The scheme would be implemented in a phased manner with only 20 cities to be included in the first phase to be followed by 40 each in two successive phases.

“We will try to put our best foot forward through quick online delivery of basic services and improvement in our public transport system to ensure that we are included in the first phase,” said BMC Mayor, Ananta Narayan Jena.

Benefits

Both Bhubaneswar and Rourkela will receive Rs 500 crore in five years as part of the Rs 48,000-crore smart cities project that envisages development of a slew of facilities including e-governance, transport, waste, water and energy management apart from building skill development centres.

The Center has envisaged the smart city project with a view to create replicable models that other aspiring cities can emulate.

The four major components of growth for smart cities would focus on institutional, physical, social and economic infrastructure development.

Resources Generation

With the project to be implemented between 2015 and 2020, the selected cities would also generate their own resources to complement the central grant of Rs 500 crore.

The local generation of resources would be through imposition of various kinds of civic taxes.

Courtesy: The Telegraph | Image Source: Flickr